About Charis Eng, MD, PhD

Charis Eng, MD, PhD is the Chair and founding Director of the Genomic Medicine Institute of the Cleveland Clinic, founding Director and attending clinical cancer geneticist of the institute’s clinical component, the Center for Personalized Genetic Healthcare, and Professor and Vice Chairman of the Department of Genetics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. She holds a joint appointment as Professor of Molecular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and is a member of Cleveland Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Center and of the CASE Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Eng was honored with the Sondra J. and Stephen R. Hardis Endowed Chair in Cancer Genomic Medicine in 2008 and the American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professorship in 2009. More recently, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (previously known as Institute of Medicine) of the US National Academies of Sciences for her achievements and leadership in genetics- and genomics-based research and personalized healthcare. She continues to hold an honorary appointment at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Eng’s research interests may be broadly characterized as clinical cancer genetics translational research. Her work on RET testing in multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 and characterization of the widening clinical spectra of PTEN mutations have been acknowledged as the paradigm for the practice of clinical cancer genetics. At the clinical interface, Dr. Eng is acknowledged as one of the rare go to people on what is and how to implement genetic- and omics-enabled personalized healthcare.

Dr. Eng grew up in Singapore and Bristol, UK and entered the University of Chicago at the age of 16. After completing an MD and PhD at its Pritzker School of Medicine, she specialized in internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital, Boston and trained in medical oncology at Harvard’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She was formally trained in clinical cancer genetics at the University of Cambridge and the Royal Marsden NHS Trust, UK, and in laboratory-based human cancer genetics by Prof Sir Bruce Ponder. At the end of 1995, Dr. Eng returned to the Farber as Assistant Professor of Medicine, and in January, 1999 was recruited by The Ohio State University as Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Clinical Cancer Genetics Program. In 2001, she was honored with the conferment of the Davis Professorship and appointed Co-Director of the Division of Human Genetics in the Department of Internal Medicine. In 2002, she was promoted to Professor and Division Director, and was conferred the Klotz Endowed Chair. She was recruited to the Cleveland Clinic in Sept, 2005 where she founded and leads the Genomic Medicine Institute, a single platform for research, academic clinical activities and education in genomics medicine as it enables healthcare. Dr. Eng has published over 400 peer reviewed original papers in such journals as the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Lancet, Nature Genetics, Nature, Cell and Molecular Cell. She has received numerous awards and honors including election to the American Society of Clinical Investigation, to the Association of American Physicians and as Fellow of AAAS, and the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award. Dr. Eng is the 2005 recipient of the ATA Van Meter Award, the 2006 Ernst Oppenheimer Award of The Endocrine Society and the 2006 American Cancer Society John Peter Minton, MD, PhD Hero of Hope Research Medal of Honor, 2014 James Ewing Lecturer of the Society of Surgical Oncology and the 2014 AACR-WICR Charlotte Friend Memorial Lecturer. She was the North American Editor of the Journal of Medical Genetics (1998-2005), Senior Editor of Cancer Research (2004-09), and Associate Editor of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (2005-09) and of the American Journal of Human Genetics (2007-09). She is in the midst of a 10-year term as Editor-in-Chief of Endocrine-Related Cancer. Dr. Eng completed a 3-year term on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Human Genetics, has completed a 2-year term as Chair of the Clinical Science Committee of the Personalized Medicine Coalition and completed a 5-year term on the Board of Scientific Directors of the National Human Genome Research Institute. Dr. Eng was appointed by Kathleen Sebelius to the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society (2009-11). She also was co-chair of their Task Force to examine whole genome sequencing for clinical application, and serves on the Expert Panel of the WHO Grand Challenges Project on Public Health Genomics in Developing Countries.

Medical School - University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
Chicago,
IL USA
1988

Medical School - University of Chicago
Chicago,
IL USA
1986

Undergraduate - University of Chicago
Chicago,
IL USA
1982

Additional Training

Clinical Cancer Genetics Fellowship Training Programme, University of Cambridge Center for Medical Genetics, and Royal Marsden Hospital, U.K., 1992-1995. I am only one of two formally trained clinical cancer geneticists in this country.

Leadership Academy, Fisher College of Business and College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 2003

Election to Fellowship, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2003

Election to Membership, Association of American Physicians, 2004

Local Legend from Ohio, bestowed by the American Medical Women’s Association in conjunction with the U.S. Senate on women physicians who have demonstrated commitment, originality, innovation and/or creativity in their fields of medicine, 2005

Mortar Board and Sphinx Faculty Recognition Award for the single faculty mentor who has most greatly influenced a graduating undergraduate student’s academic career (nominated by Christopher Alvarez-Breckenridge), The Ohio State University, Columbus, 2005

The Donald V. Unverferth Award for Sustained Scholarly Excellence and Extraordinary Mentorship by a Faculty Member, Department of Internal Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 2005

American Association for Cancer Research-Women in Cancer Research Distinguished Scientists Database, 2005

The Endocrine Society/Pfizer, Inc. International Finalist Award for Excellence in Published Clinical Research in J Clin Endocrinol Metab in 2005, The Endocrine Society, Boston, Mass., 2006

American Cancer Society (Ohio Division) John Peter Minton, MD, PhD Hero of Hope Research Medal of Honor (in the area of Clinical Research) in recognition of significant contributions to the advancement of cancer research in Ohio, 2006

National Academy of Medicine/Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2010

National Academy of Medicine (Institute of Medicine) of the National Academies, 2010

2013 400 Most Influential Biomedical Researchers

Exceptional Mentor Award, AMWA, 2013

Women's Physician Section Mentor Award, AMA, 2014

James Ewing Lecture of the Society of Surgical Oncology, 2014

AACR-WICR Charlotte Friend Lecture, 2014

Innovations & Patents

Among a few in the U.S. who created the field of clinical cancer genetics. Pioneered the nascent field of cancer genomic medicine and personalized genetic healthcare. Inventions and patents relate to improving risk assessment and personalizing healthcare.

Industry Relationships

Cleveland Clinic physicians and scientists may collaborate with the pharmaceutical or medical device industries to help develop medical breakthroughs or provide medical expertise or education. Cleveland Clinic strives to make scientific advances that will benefit patient care and support outside relationships that promise public benefit. In order for the discoveries of Cleveland Clinic physicians' and scientists' laboratories and investigations to benefit the public, these discoveries must be commercialized in partnership with industry. As experts in their fields, Cleveland Clinic physicians and scientists are often sought after by industry to consult, provide expertise and education.

To assure professional and commercial integrity in such matters, Cleveland Clinic maintains a program that reviews these collaborations and, when appropriate, puts measures in place to minimize bias that may result from ties to industry. Cleveland Clinic publicly discloses the names of companies when (i) its physicians/scientists receive $5,000 or more per year (or, in rare cases, equity or stock options) for speaking and consulting, (ii) its physicians/scientists serve as a fiduciary, (iii) its physicians/scientists receive or have the right to receive royalties or (iv) its physicians/ scientists hold any equity interest for the physician's/scientist's role as inventor, discoverer, developer, founder or consultant.* In publicly disclosing this information, Cleveland Clinic tries to provide information as accurately as possible about its physicians' and scientists' connections with industry.

As of 2/19/2018, Dr. Eng has reported the financial relationships with the companies listed below.
In general, patients should feel free to contact their doctor about any of the relationships and how the relationships are overseen by Cleveland Clinic. To learn more about Cleveland Clinic's policies on collaborations with industry and innovation management, go to our Integrity in Innovation page.

Fiduciary Role. Dr. Eng serves in a fiduciary capacity, such as an elected officer, director or chief medical officer, for the following companies or other entities:

Family Care Path, Inc.

Covariance Biosciences, LLC. PlexSeq

Donation of Financial Interest. Dr. Eng has consulted for, received compensation for serving as a fiduciary from, or received royalties from the following companies but instructed them to donate all compensation to not-for-profit causes or to the Cleveland Clinic to support research and education:

N-of-One, Inc.

Public Health Service-Reportable Financial Conflicts of Interest. Cleveland Clinic scientists and physicians engage in basic, translational and clinical research activities, working to solve health problems, enhance patient care and improve quality of life for patients. Interactions with industry are essential to bringing the researchers' discoveries to the public, but can present the potential for conflicts of interest related to their research activities. Click here to view a listing of instances where Cleveland Clinic has identified a Public Health Service (PHS)-Reportable Financial Conflict of Interest and has put measures in place to ensure that, to the extent possible, the design, conduct and reporting of the research is free from bias.

* Cleveland Clinic physicians and scientists subscribe to the guidance presented in the PhRMA Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals and the AdvaMed Code of Ethics on Interactions with Health Care Professionals. As such, gifts of substantial value are generally prohibited.